Various digital switching schemes for controlling the flow of digital communications information have incorporated such things as "programmable switches." In general, most programmable switches involve some type of centralized network that allows various nodes to interface with each other. These conventional switches are oriented around a host platform that possesses all of the feature execution, while the switch itself possesses only the ability to execute primitive-level functions that in and of themselves are not visible to any user as a feature or a function. For these host-based systems, host software is required during the execution for the call at all stages. The reason for this is that the manufacturer of the switch has designed the switch to place all responsibility and opportunity to dictate how a call is handled with the purchaser of the switch. In systems that existed prior to the host-based systems, the manufacturer provided all software while making the purchaser dependent on the manufacturer's ability to produce. Time-to-market and expenses associated with the manufacturer were reduced substantially by allowing the purchaser to produce the software itself. In general, the host-based system has a number of problems. These problems are, in part, related to issues of performance, cost and the level of programmability of the switch. The older programmable switches are more expensive than their non-programmable counterparts (measured in terms of cost-per-channel). The size of the switches tended to be smaller than performance levels that are useful. The level of programmability has been a problem due to the fact that the purchaser has been required to choose from either having no high-level software for call and maintenance functions (since the manufacturer has only provided basic call primitive-level functionality-features) or to resort to third-party suppliers that provide middleware and call functionality that is not as programmable as a switch and adds substantially to the cost.